About the upcoming Mount Gram AP.

Article here.

Also a teaser about the Ettenmoors AP, which will include a "5 hit point hero."

Best. Idea. Ever.

It sounds really cool, but it does sound like it might be fodder for someone like Boromir. And you might be able to take the scenario apart by making a deck that relies on events and attachments that are excluded from the capture mechanic.

But I'm certainly going to let it steal my allies away on the first go, wanna see how this plays!

Oh I agree that it certainly seems ripe for very specific planning and deck building, but it could be fun to try out a bunch of different starting heroes against it once you tire of the optimal ones. A Fatty prison break would be good wholesome fun.

Some heroes are clearly a lot better than others in this mode. I'm actually thinking Sam will be a great choice, since he has some willpower to quest early.

Also, if you make a deck with only 7 eligible cards for your draw deck, you'll guarantee that you have them all in hand on turn 1.

Does seem like it could lend itself to being overcome by specific deck building, but also seems like one of the most thematic ideas I've heard....super excited to play this quest...stuck in a dungeon...rescuing players...searching for our gear...sound awesome!! Hope some of these ideas see play in later quests as well.

This sounds fantastic.

Really neat direction to make tha game interesting in yet unexplored ways. Neat!

Since when is encouraging specific deck building a bad thing? The quest just sounds amazing. I have often wanted a POD quest that featured the skipped over section in the Hobbit when Bilbo finds a way to escape the palace of Thranduil. It is one of the best sections of the book, but extremely difficult to translate into a quest. This latest quest makes me think of that episode. I am excited.

Since when is encouraging specific deck building a bad thing? The quest just sounds amazing. I have often wanted a POD quest that featured the skipped over section in the Hobbit when Bilbo finds a way to escape the palace of Thranduil. It is one of the best sections of the book, but extremely difficult to translate into a quest. This latest quest makes me think of that episode. I am excited.

You are right. ...And doing a quest to free Thorin and Co from Thranduil's Palace would be ridiculously fun.

Also, if you make a deck with only 7 eligible cards for your draw deck, you'll guarantee that you have them all in hand on turn 1.

Not quite - look at the quest card, at the end of the other setup you draw a new starting hand of only 3 cards. You'd have to limit it to 4 eligible cards.

On the other hand, I do think including a very limited number of cards you can keep to make your remaining deck incredibly consistent may be a very effective deckbuilding strategy for this quest.

Really looking forward to seeing how these mechanics play out.

Treebeard Gandalf deck. Just include three copies of UC and fill the rest with other stuff.

Seriously though, getting 3 UC out has never been easier.

Not quite - look at the quest card, at the end of the other setup you draw a new starting hand of only 3 cards. You'd have to limit it to 4 eligible cards.

On the other hand, I do think including a very limited number of cards you can keep to make your remaining deck incredibly consistent may be a very effective deckbuilding strategy for this quest.

Really looking forward to seeing how these mechanics play out.

Whoops, didn't actually read the quest card. Just the summary.

What would you bring? They mostly can't be attachments or allies, so most permanent boons are right out.

Maybe Glorfindel + Light of Valinor and Test of Will x 3. (LoV is a condition, so it doesn't go in the attachment deck) Elrond's Counsel could also be a strong include, since you can play them for free as soon as you get another character.

A Leadership dwarf + 3x Durin's Song. Tactics Merry + 3x Halfling Determination.

After 3 years of being insulted and neglected, it's time for Taking Initiative to finally prove its worth!

This is a really cool sounding quest. Can't wait to try it out - looks like they've really thought of a good way to do a prison break without mimicking Dol Guldur too much. Excellent!

A quest that restricts you to 1 hero and lets you rescue your stuff? That's new. I think that if done right this could easily become a classic. Or a total dud. Hoping for the former!

This quest looks epic! I just beat Wastes of Eriador and think it is an amazing new quest. This one looks like it will potentially be even better!! The single hero to start with is pretty gnarly!!! I love that your second hero is placed on the very top of your "captured deck" meaning you will see it very early on (so long as you are successful in freeing/saving them!) but your third is shuffled into your captured deck so could potentially not appear at all or at least a lot later in the quest! Reminds me of the treachery card lost and alone in the foundations of stone quest.

Just for the sake of it here are some key attachments that do not have the item, artifact or mount trait and could potentially be very useful in this quest:

-Steward of Gondor

-Light of Valinor

-Visionary Leadership

-O Lorien

-Wingfoot

-Heir of Mardil

-Captain of Gondor

-The Days Rising

-Unexpected Courage

-Protector of Lorien

-Dunedain Mark and Dunedain Warning

-Fast Hitch

-Ranger Spikes

Also due to the wording on Stage 1A am I right in saying that during your first turn your starting hero would have 3 resources (2 from the quest stage and 1 from your first resource phase) and you would have 4 cards in hand (3 from quest stage and 1 from your first resource phase)? This is not too shabby a setup for a single hero and considering you can rescue a hero for each player quite early on it seems like for the majority of the quest each player will have two heroes and if lucky will rescue their third at some point. It is also very interesting to note that the Angmar Orcs encounter set is the only one used other than the encounter set included in the scenario and whats more it seems like the Angmar Orcs set is only added to the encounter deck later in the quest (perhaps at stage 2 or even stage 3). I think this is to keep the power level of the encounter deck low while you only have one (maybe two) hero. This is backed up by how weak the two encounter cards spoiled are. The enemy has incredibly low stats (you could even take an undefended attack and then attack back and kill it with the one hero and no allies in play) and allows you to play one of the rescued cards for free. Similarly the location allows you to play one of the captured cards for free when you travel there and then once explored will put any other rescued cards in their owners hand.

This quest seems like it will have so much replay value and randomness as every game your capture deck will be shuffled differently and you will gain very different "rewards" so to speak in each game. The two heroes I plan to use as my initial heroes (two handed play) are Sam and Elrond. Elrond boosts healing, has high willpower and with Light of Valinor can quest and defend and Sam has action advantage built in, high willpower and with a fast hitch can also easily pull double duties. Tactics Boromir is obviously an ideal choice as well and would perhaps even make this quest trivial (at the start at least).

We don't really know how tough it will get towards the end however so perhaps he will only make freeing more characters and the early game much easier but will not be overly useful towards the end.

Lastly that five hit points hero sounds pretty exciting!! We only have a few existing heroes with 5 or more hitpoints and this new hero is the defensive tactics hero. A defender with 5 hitpoints could potentially be a very big deal!

Oh, I was hoping for Gildor but now I wonder if he should be it. The five-hit-point guy sounds more like a Dúnedain, perhaps. But it should certainly be the one with the scrying mechanic, right?

Your second and third heroes wouldn't matter threat wise, would they? Unless there's some mechanic we haven't seen yet.

Oh, I was hoping for Gildor but now I wonder if he should be it. The five-hit-point guy sounds more like a Dúnedain, perhaps. But it should certainly be the one with the scrying mechanic, right?

The Lore hero is in Mount Gram, the tactics defensive hero with 5 hitpoints is in across the ettenmoors.

Oh, thanks for that. I did not expect to get a teaser from the third pack in the article about the second pack. That makes sense: the defensive Tactics (probably Dwarf) will have five hp. All clear now. And it doesn't mean the scrying Lore hero shall not be Dúnedain: we may get two in the cycle (pack 2 & 5) but I still hope it is Gildor (though having three Noldor: here, Erestor and pack 6 is probably asking too much even though Dwarrodelf had 4).

There really aren't that many Noldor heroes yet and one is a second copy of Glorfindel so we might get three this cycle. I think you are right though and we will probably only get two; Erestor and someone else. I'm not sure that we will get that many more Dunedain heroes however as there are no more named characters left and Beravour and Idraen are already FFG creations.

A different version of Halbarad further along in the game would be nice.

I think the Spirit in the last pack is a given, pretty much. I don't see it going anywhere else. Hobbits just got Spirit Merry; Gondor have two Spirit heroes whilst few Spirit cards; Dúnedain have Idraen (and also have only a few Spirit cards); Rohan just got Théoden (and have Éowyn and Dúnhere also). More importantly, the focus on the discard pile strategy will probably be Spirit/Lore-oriented, and Noldor-themed, so a Spirit Noldor hero to cap it up in the last pack must be true. It would also unlock Glorfindel in a way -- giving us another hero to benefit from Elrond's Counsel right away.

And I agree, we still have a very few Noldor characters (and especially allies), partly because we never got a Noldor deluxe. And this is Eriador where both Lindon and Rivendell are (though strictly speaking they are beyond its borders, I believe), the two places where the Noldor dwell. I don't think we shall get a Noldor-deluxe, I can't see where it would take place. So yes, I totally hope for three Noldor heroes in this cycle.

It seems to me like a second attempt at Escape from Dol Guldur, now with some more experience and insight.

It seems to me like a bit of Dol Guldur, a bit of Foundations of Stone, and a bit of To Catch an Orc, all mixed together with some new ideas on top.